Northern Holdfast is hosting a Sapling Tournament (I don't have the rules for the A&S tourney).

Sapling Tournament-Pool Play Format, Sign-ins start at 11:00 and last call at 12:30pm. Tournament will start promptly at 1:00 pm. In order to join the Sapling tournament, you need to have 3 Orders of the Warrior or less.

The way pool play works is the tournament team will construct a number of pools based on the number of entrants. For example, If we have 20 players participating, we will have either 2 pools of 10, or 4 pools of 5. The tournament director will seed the top 4-8 players depending on how many total players. The remaining players will be randomly selected using a deck of cards.

The categories will be Single Short Sword, Sword and Board, Florentine, then Open. Each match will be best 2 out of 3. When you are done with your match, you report it to the Recorder. The recorder will be sitting near your pool to record wins and losses. This way each player gets to fight in at least 4 matches for each category. There will be no caller for matches. You need to all be at your pool and understand when you are going to have your matches.

An example of how a 5 person pool would be run (note that the capital letters denote players)

Depending on the total size of the tournament, we will take the top player from each pool and seed them based on best record. If there are 1-23 players, then there will be a 4 person single elimination playoff. If there are 24+ players, then there will be an 8 person single elimination playoff. Then the category will continue as best of three, single elimination. For example, with 4 pools, Pool 1 finished 4-0, Pool 2 finished 4-0, Pool 3 finished 3-1 and Pool 4 finished 4-0. Since 3 teams finished with a 4-0 record, the top 3 seeds will be randomized.

Pool 1-1st Pool 2-2nd Pool 3-4th Pool 4-3rd

Winner of Pool 1 (1st) will play the Winner of Pool 3 (4th). Winner of Pool 2 (2nd) will play Winner of Pool 4 (3rd). The winners will play for 1st and 2nd overall and the losers will play for 3rd and 4th.Points will be award as 4 points to 1st, 3 points to 2nd, 2 points to 3rd, and 1 point to 4th.

Examples of Pools based on number of players:10 players = 2 pools of 5, top 2 from each pool11 players = 2 pools of 5/6, top 2 from each pool12 players = 2 pools of 6, top 2 from each pool13 players = 2 pools 6/7, top 2 from each pool14 players = 2 pools of 7, top 2 from each pool19 players = 2 pools of 9/10, top 2 from each pool20 players = 4 pools of 5, top player from each pool29 players = 4 pools of 7/7/7/8, top 2 from each pool32 players = 4 pools of 8, top 2 from each pool

Many thanks to our Monarch Arkias (Stark) for organizing this amazing event. I had a blast running the largest tournament I have been apart of. When I did my Sapling tournament 3 years ago, it only had 8 people and this year, we had 40!!! A huge thanks goes out to my reeves and helpers, Swift (Tyrell) , Agustus (Baratheon), Rafeki (Stark), Kain (Targaryen), Eggman (Tyrell) , Cruz, Grendel (Targaryen), Quiet (Quiet) and Grix (Baratheon). The tournament format was a little bit different than what you guys were probably were used to, but I am glad so many of you liked it. Thanks for all the positive and negative feedback. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or concerns. I also want to thank everyone who donated stuff to give to the people who participated in the event. It is always nice to be able to give some nice stuff away, especially since it just sits in our closets doing nothing. I believe there were over 90 sign-ins, which by my guess there had to be over 100 then, with all the spectators and family. That is awesome to see.